Chicago Blackhawks in First Place on Ice & in Box Office

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Ticket Demand for Chicago Blackhawks Home Games

After storming out of the gates in historic fashion last season and finishing strong with their second Stanley Cup in four years, the Chicago Blackhawks are back at the top of the NHL standings this year. In a back and forth with Western Conference foe the Anaheim Ducks and Eastern Conference power Pittsburgh Penguins, the Blackhawks have consistently been among the top of the point standings in the 2013-14 NHL season and are the Central Division leader at the Olympic break.

The Blackhawks have a league-high 14 points from “overtime losses,” showing that the squad is both resilient and somewhat vulnerable compared to their early-season dominance last year. The road’s always tougher as a defending champ, especially in a season featuring a compressed schedule because of the upcoming two-week Olympic hiatus, so more nights have proved challenging as their iconic red sweaters have featured a target on their backs.

Despite their slightly less dominant play, Chicago Blackhawks fans continue to support their team in record fashion. Blackhawks home games at United Center are the most expensive in the league, up 32% on the secondary market from a two-week average of $173 to $229 per ticket. Another Original Six team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, who consistently draw the highest average ticket price in the league, are a close second at $227 per ticket, but both teams are far ahead of the third-ranked Boston Bruins ($158).

In comparison to previous years, this is the hottest Blackhawks tickets have been since at least 2009 when we began monitoring the resale market. For the entire season, Toronto’s average of $199 remains the highest and Chicago is second $178 on average. The Blackhawks and Maple Leafs are the only two teams in the NHL that have not hosted a game this season with an average ticket price below $100. In fact, the last time the Blackhawks drew a sub-$100 average ticket price for a game at the United Center was more than two years ago on Jan. 10, 2012 against Columbus ($91).

NHL Average Ticket Prices

Here are the latest two-week moving average prices of NHL teams’ home games as the Olympic break approaches. You can see that, as usual, the Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs have prices far ahead of the third place team in the league.

Team

Avg. Price

Chicago Blackhawks

$229

Toronto Maple Leafs

$227

Winnipeg Jets

$162

Boston Bruins

$158

Pittsburgh Penguins

$145

Montreal Canadiens

$144

New York Rangers

$140

Vancouver Canucks

$115

Los Angeles Kings

$100

New Jersey Devils

$84

Philadelphia Flyers

$82

Minnesota Wild

$79

San Jose Sharks

$77

Washington Capitals

$71

New York Islanders

$66

Dallas Stars

$66

Edmonton Oilers

$64

Detroit Red Wings

$64

Calgary Flames

$63

Tampa Bay Lightning

$62

Phoenix Coyotes

$60

Ottawa Senators

$59

Buffalo Sabres

$55

St. Louis Blues

$54

Nashville Predators

$53

Colorado Avalanche

$49

Columbus Blue Jackets

$47

Anaheim Ducks

$44

Florida Panthers

$41

Carolina Hurricanes

$31

2014 NHL Stadium Series

With the 2014 Winter Classic and three other outdoor matchups in the book, the highest profile NHL Stadium Series matchup left to play is the Penguins at Blackhawks contest on March 1 at Soldier Field. Chicago’s two-week average ticket price has been driven up by record-high demand for this outdoor game, drawing an average ticket price of $303. That’s 9% higher than the most expensive regular season home game we’ve recorded at the United Center, which was this season’s home opener against the Capitals ($277).

While this represents the most expensive remaining Chicago home game this year, the least expensive average price currently available is when the Dallas Stars visit Tuesday, March 25; tickets for that game are going for an average of $130. The least expensive pair of seats available to a Blackhawks game on the secondary market are $94 per ticket in the upper deck (Section 329, Row 11) for that matchup; 20 of the 30 teams in the NHL have drawn average ticket prices this season lower than $94!